Today, I went to visit my supervisor from work who's in the hospital with a nasty post-op infection. She is like a favorite aunt to me and was one of the people who kept pushing me toward my goal of vet med even when I had lost confidence in myself. While we were chatting today, she told me that because she never had kids, she considered the students that came through work (like me) to be like her kids, and she wants us all to succeed so badly, especially because she thought she wasn't smart enough to be a vet. She told me how proud she was of me (overcoming my measly 2.97 GPA to get in to vet school and now doing really well); she introduced me to all of her doctors and nurses that stopped by as "her friend, Dr. [mylastname]." And yeah, I'm not a doctor yet (and I didn't pretend to be), but I knew she called me that out of pride; I can't even describe how that makes me feel.

I'm so lucky to have such amazing people in my life. My husband never complains about me being 1200 miles away, in another country, for four years while he saves money to buy us a house. My family takes me even every school break and puts up with my worldly possessions in their basement. My friends and co-workers invite me to spend time with them as soon as I'm home, and are always so happy to see me. I hate that I'm still in school, so far away, which makes me the selfish friend. But I am so, so fortunate to have such great people around me and I hope I never take them for granted.